If you search on LinkedIn, you'll find Zynga has hired more than 200 former Electronic Arts employees. Sources close to the company told us the number of former EA employees at Zynga is actually much higher than that.

One source very close to the companies said Zynga was receiving thousands of resumes from employees at Electronic Arts, a 8,000-plus employee company.

Pincus was not only able to pull in the top talent in the industry, but leave a competitor with a talent drain that gave the new social networking giant a huge advantage.

Now Zynga will IPO at an $8.9 billion valuation, including unexercised options and warrants. That's well above Electronic Arts' valuation of $6.9 billion. Even not including unexercised options and warrants, Zynga is still more valuable than Electronic Arts at $7 billion.

Here are just a few of EA's top executives that Zynga has poached:

John Schappert, chief operating officer, former COO of Electronic Arts

Mark Skaggs, head of FarmVille and CityVille, former vice president of Electronic Arts

Bing Gordon, the godfather of Zynga, played a crucial role in pulling talent from EA. Having been with the company since 1982, he knew a lot about EA's inner workings. Skaggs reported directly to Gordon during his time at EA before Gordon left to become a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, sources told us.

Verdu, Skaggs, Ajami and Rahimi all worked together closely at Electronic Arts' Los Angeles office, sources told us. As soon as Skaggs was hired, he took most of his former team with him.

Zynga hired Chiang, co-founded Tiburon Entertainment with Schappert in 1994, in March last year. The company needed some order eventually, and knew Schappert was the man for the job, sources told us.

And even during his time at Electronic Arts, Schappert was still a whisper in Pincus's ear. Sources told us Schappert was a believer in social games and though Electronic Arts should go all-in on it. EA was instead content to build it out as a vertical and focus on its other titles, like Battlefield, one source told us.

With Chiang in the stable, Zynga made a move to grab Schappert who came on board in April this year. He brought Karp with him.

Now Schappert will probably be Zynga's next CEO. Pincus has said he hired Schappert to be his replacement, but he also tells his employees to always look for their own replacements.

When briefed on the story, Electronic Arts and Zynga declined to comment.